www.corpun.com

-- THE ARCHIVE --

AUSTRALIA

The Age, Melbourne, 8 September 2004

Review may ban strap in schools

By Farrah TomazinEducation Reporter

The State Government will review the use of corporal
punishment in non-government schools, as calls grow for the
practice to be banned in Victoria.

Education Minister Lynne Kosky said the Government would
consider the issue as part of the first overhaul of
private-school registration in almost a century. But she refused
to be drawn on whether she would ban the practice altogether,
despite pressure to do so from the independent school teachers'
union.

Corporal punishment was banned in public and Catholic schools
about 20 years ago, but is still used as a form of discipline in
a small number of independent schools.

Victorian Independent Education Union general secretary Tony
Keenan told The Age that schools that physically punished
students should not be allowed to be registered. "Why, in
2004, would the State Government allow a school that uses
corporal punishment to be registered when it's outlawed in other
states?" Mr Keenan said.

Ms Kosky said the practice would be considered as part of a
review of the 46-year-old Education Act, part of which involves
revamping the Registered Schools Board, the body that registers
non-government schools. A report with recommendations to improve
the system is with the Government.

Association of Independent Schools of Victoria chief executive
Michelle Green said she believed there were "less than a
handful" of schools that still used corporal punishment in
Victoria.

One school is the Frank Dando Sports Academy, in Ashwood, which teaches students with social or emotional problems. But vice-principal Ziad Zacharia said corporal punishment was so rare
at the school that "it wouldn't affect us at all" if it
was banned. Instead, students learnt self-discipline through a reward system giving them "credit points" for good behaviour, he said.

St Michael's Grammar School in St Kilda employed corporal
punishment until about six years ago, when principal Simon Gipson
took over as head and denounced it as "abhorrent". It
has also been scrapped at Heathdale Christian College, where it
was used 10 years ago. "The times have changed, it's as
simple as that," principal Reynald Tibben said yesterday.

Ms Green said that while many people opposed the practice,
parents who sent their children to schools where corporal
punishment took place "know what they're going to get".

"And don't forget, they've got the right to take their
child out of a school," Ms Green said.

Corporal punishment has long been a contentious issue. In
2001, the Christian Community Schools group said using "the
hand or flat instrument on the buttocks is appropriate in some
circumstances". In the same year, a former NSW student
successfully sued the Trustees of the Catholic Church and an ex-teacher for repeated strappings, which he claimed had
permanently damaged his right hand.

The Weekend Australian, Sydney, 25 September 2004

Coalition in call to bring back cane

(extracts)

SENIOR
Coalition MPs are pushing for radical education reforms including
council control over school funding levels, the introduction of a
voucher system and the return of the cane.

Just a day after National MP Kay Hull said parents who earned
more than $100,000 should have to pay for their children's
education in government schools, senior Coalition MPs were
yesterday promoting additional policy ideas.

Parliamentary
secretary to the Trade and Transport ministers, De-Anne Kelly,
called for a system of school vouchers that would be valid at any
public or private schools.

............

National MP
Ian Causley, who holds the marginal NSW seat of Page, said that
rather than focusing on fees and resources, the debate should be
based on classroom discipline.

Mr Causley
told The Australian state school teachers should be given
"more weapons" to discipline students, and the cane
should be considered as a "last resort".

"We've
overreacted to the issues like child assault and I think that's
part of the problem and I think most people would like to see a
bit of discipline in schools and give teachers back their
powers," he said. "When I went to school I got the
cane. Maybe we should bring that back."